Replacing '\' character in a Java String

Question

I have a java string with "\\" character (extra '\' for escaping). I want to replace all the occurence of "\\" to "\". Any idea how it can be done? str.replaceAll("\\", "\") does not work. The problem is in replacing the \ character.

Answer 1

str.replaceAll("\\\\", "\")

"\" means \ cause of \ is an escape symbol

heh, even stackoverflow parser converts \ \ (without spaces) to single \ :-))

Answer 2

From the Java documentation:

Note that backslashes (\) and dollar signs ($) in the replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string; see Matcher.replaceAll. Use Matcher.quoteReplacement(java.lang.String) to suppress the special meaning of these characters, if desired.